Finn-Magnus Holden

The new secret sauce of innovation

Reading this article, I guess you remember the time you had a new idea, and you were told “we have tried that before” or “this already works just fine.”

Well, it turns out managers with that mindset will not survive what’s a head of them.

However, this brief article will give you the tools to provide successful innovation both for startups and large companies, and why you should immediately scale your budget on innovation.

Why innovate?

Companies need to have people present at their main business, focusing on being exceptional at what they doing right now. But they also need to have people who are building the future. They are both equally important.

The fact that it is cheaper and easier to build something today is both a threat and an opportunity. For entrepreneurs, there are a lot more options today. New technology enables entrepreneurs to move faster, cheaper and instantly into the global market.

The paradox is that if you are becoming the best at what you are doing, it sets you up for failure in the long run. Just look at companies such as Blockbuster, Kodak, Nokia, Blackberry and Myspace. All of them demolished by smaller companies.

– Sorry big companies, incremental innovations don’t work in the long run. You have to invent radical innovations to survive. If you don’t have the skills and don’t want to acquire the skills needed to radically innovate, you can explore new innovations through alliances, joint ventures, and acquisitions. While this approach might sound like the safer option, it turns out its a lot more expensive than doing it yourself.

Reading this article will give you four important lessons on how your company can unlock the true power of radical innovation.

Finn-Magnus Holden

The new secret sauce of innovation

Reading this article, I guess you remember the time you had a new idea, and you were told “we have tried that before” or “this already works just fine.”

Well, it turns out managers with that mindset will not survive what’s a head of them.

However, this brief article will give you the tools to provide successful innovation both for startups and large companies, and why you should immediately scale your budget on innovation.

Why innovate?

Companies need to have people present at their main business, focusing on being exceptional at what they doing right now. But they also need to have people who are building the future. They are both equally important.

The fact that it is cheaper and easier to build something today is both a threat and an opportunity. For entrepreneurs, there are a lot more options today. New technology enables entrepreneurs to move faster, cheaper and instantly into the global market.

The paradox is that if you are becoming the best at what you are doing, it sets you up for failure in the long run. Just look at companies such as Blockbuster, Kodak, Nokia, Blackberry and Myspace. All of them demolished by smaller companies.

– Sorry big companies, incremental innovations don’t work in the long run. You have to invent radical innovations to survive. If you don’t have the skills and don’t want to acquire the skills needed to radically innovate, you can explore new innovations through alliances, joint ventures, and acquisitions. While this approach might sound like the safer option, it turns out its a lot more expensive than doing it yourself.

Reading this article will give you four important lessons on how your company can unlock the true power of radical innovation.

Funding is increased by 10% in Q1 2018

The emergence of new technology provides incentives for entrepreneurs.

Investing in startups is trending. People that were once investing in real estate and stock markets are now reading startup litterature to understand how everything works. The surge of new technology is on its way, and investors are looking forward to be apart of that trend.

$23B was invested across 1,416 deals in the US. Asia Funding continues to rise, with 10% increase from Q1’18.

Graph via Venture Capital Funding Reports Q2 2018

Why should you innovate right now?

Industrial Revolution 1771, Steam av Railway 1821, Steel and Electricity 1875, Automobile, oil and mass production 1908, Information and telecommunication 1971.

Did you notice that these technological revolutions occurred every 40 to 60 years?

How we look during the next revolution

Gif, just for laughs oops via Giphy

It’s called, Techno-economic paradigm. Technological advancement provides a swarm of new innovations and opportunities for entrepreneurs, but also demolishing existing industries.

These radical innovations created surges of development, and historically speaking, we are on the verge of a new revolution.

These five revolutions have been accompanied by a set of best practice principles. A new paradigm that breaks the habits in business development and management.

The best practice for innovators is to focus on behavior and psychology.

Regular “business thinkers” focus on the product or the market. Design thinkers focus on behavior and psychology.

While everyone else is focusing on the product, you are identifying the root cause of a problem. This is what we call Innovative Blind Spot, and it’s a reward waiting for you.

Big companies have acknowledged design thinking. IBM has 1600 design thinkers in leading positions. Lego, Phillips, BMW, and Airbnb have all design thinkers that has succeeded in a human-centered approach, which today provides better customer experiences.

The first thing you have to do is to change your mindset, everything is design.

“Design, is a funny word. Some people think design mean how it looks. But, of course, if you dig deeper, it’s really how it works.”

Steve jobs

Design by Apple.

Let me ask you this. Have you ever had problems with a printer? Do you think it’s a good intuitive experience?

Well, it’s better now than what it was 20 years ago, but still there is a long way before I feel happy about printing something out.

Model of design thinking

Photo, Model of design thinking via megusta.oucreate.com

Continuing reading this article, you will learn how to practice four of the steps in design thinking.

1. Observation

gif, Watching Arnorld Schwarzenegger, via giphy

As a design thinker, you have to get out of the building and observing what your customers do.

For data collection, you watch how your customers behave. Focus groups or interviews won’t help you out this time. You have to observe customer behavior in their particular environment.

2. User Persona

A persona is a representation of your ideal user based on observation. When creating your personas, consider including pain points, behavior patterns, motivations and goals. The more detailed you are, the better. Design thinking is a process where empathy is key.

3. Customer Journey Map

Picture, Custormer Journey, via flicker

Draw the user journey. What does the person do before the problem appears, and during.

Do you remember that design is how things work, not how it looks? Your job is to design the customer journey. Map out where your customers have pains, and the steps your customer goes through. If you are really good, you have made an invisible design.

Well, that’s not everything

4. Empathy

gif, Crying Tobey Maguir via tenor

In Design thinking, it’s more about problem finding, not problem-solving. With this method you are using Customer Empathy to solve the customer’s problem, or the problem they could not tell you they had or even knew they had.

So how find the root cause of a problem?

A new software company shared their thinking about their chatbot. “We have made a chatbot for our employees, it is supposed to help them out when they are not able to answer a question”.

I asked why they needed that chatbot? And I asked why on the follow-up, and so on. It turned out that they did not need any chatbot, they needed a better system for training employees. That was the real root cause of the problem.

The important thing you do is to reframe the question. Many of us have heard this quote.

Good thing he invented cars and not an outstanding horse. Kinda

Gif , Horse Breakfast, via giphy

When you have defined the problem, you start making something to visualize your idea. Speed is key in this process because you are always wrong.

The rule in design thinking is that, if you are right the first time, you don’t really know your customer. Design thinking should always be repeated over multiple interactions.

You should fail, this is how you learn about your customer.

Visualization helps the customers to understand the idea. And it takes just a few minutes to draw it. Use drawings, create something out of a cardboard box, get in a loop of feedback from your potential customer.

fortune.com

Interaction-design.com

Thanks to Ranvir Rai for inspiration

There are more steps in the design thinking process. Hopefully, this article will help you on your way.

I personally hate articles without criticism, so here you have some.

You should know that design thinking has a lack of criticism itself. Non-professionals run around with post-it notes, making hundred of ways to do design thinking, there is a lack of system.

The methodology of gathering data by non-professionals is questionable. Non-professionals ensure accurate and appropriate data collection, interviewers could easily mislead their subjects.

If you don’t need to find the root cause of a problem, please just make sure your customer would actually buy your product. Your first sale, that’s the first proof of concept, not your interviews.

Design thinking is for those hard questions you don’t really know how to solve.

Key takeaways

Change is on its way, and you should act now, or someone else will take your place. The financial sector and expert entrepreneurs are pushing technology forward.

Empathy is key. Design thinking is a user-centered approach to problem-solving.

Design thinking is especially helpful for finding root-cause problems.

Design thinking is a process that is repeated over multiple interactions.

Get out of the building, and start doing.

If you learned something new, I would be really happy if your share my article.

What do you think it’s the next technological revolution? A.I, 3D, biotech, nanotech?

If you have comments, please write then below.

There are more steps in the design thinking process. Hopefully, this article will help you on your way.

I personally hate articles without criticism, so here you have some.

You should know that design thinking has a lack of criticism itself. Non-professionals run around with post-it notes, making hundred of ways to do design thinking, there is a lack of system.

The methodology of gathering data by non-professionals is questionable. Non-professionals ensure accurate and appropriate data collection, interviewers could easily mislead their subjects.

If you don’t need to find the root cause of a problem, please just make sure your customer would actually buy your product. Your first sale, that’s the first proof of concept, not your interviews.

Design thinking is for those hard questions you don’t really know how to solve.

Key takeaways

Change is on its way, and you should act now, or someone else will take your place. The financial sector and expert entrepreneurs are pushing technology forward.

Empathy is key. Design thinking is a user-centered approach to problem-solving.

Design thinking is especially helpful for finding root-cause problems.

Design thinking is a process that is repeated over multiple interactions.

Get out of the building, and start doing.

If you learned something new, I would be really happy if your share my article.

What do you think it’s the next technological revolution? A.I, 3D, biotech, nanotech?

If you have comments, please write then below.